Oddly enough, the only other thing I remember about him from early 1970 is also pertinent to word usage. This is indelicate, but interesting, so I'll waltz around it as well as I can. He was apparently in need of female companionship, so he told us he was going to go into town and "get me some c***." Much to my surprise and that of the other males present, he did not use the four-letter-vulgarity-that-starts-with-C one would expect in this context, but rather its vulgar opposite (think male chicken.)

After much guffawing and some discussion, it turned out this was a local idiom of his and not a slip of the tongue. We advised him to switch to standard vulgarity or be very selective of the audience in front of which he used his peculiar, local idiom.

Yep, I grew up saying the same thing. I later read that such usage was common in the south, although for the life of me, I can't remember where I read it. (Maybe the Playboy Advisor?)

Anyway, odds are that such usage has fallen out of favor, given the loosening of standards in the mass media over the years. Now everyone probably uses what they hear in the movies. I know I don't use that idiom any more. (Of course, in my maturity, I rarely use any of those so-called "off color" terms. )

vacuumfoam wrote:Yep, I grew up saying the same thing. I later read that such usage was common in the south, although for the life of me, I can't remember where I read it. (Maybe the Playboy Advisor?)

Anyway, odds are that such usage has fallen out of favor, given the loosening of standards in the mass media over the years. Now everyone probably uses what they hear in the movies. I know I don't use that idiom any more. (Of course, in my maturity, I rarely use any of those so-called "off color" terms. )

Well, now I know he was telling us the truth ("being straight with us" was tempting, but I wouldn't stoop that low for a pun,) and he wasn't nimbly recovering from a Freudian misstep.